The Last Jedi Rumours

This Is All The Info We Have On The Last Jedi

It’s been a while since we’ve had any major news on the Star Wars: Episode VIII, so the announcement of its title, The Last Jedi, caused great excitement among fans this week. What do these three words tell us? Almost nothing, but here’s everything we do know about The Last Jedi thus far.

The Title

The Last Jedi was revealed to be the subtitle for Episode VIII. As with any Star Wars news, this kicked off a great racket of theories about what it might mean. Well. The opening crawl for The Force Awakens referred to Luke Skywalker as the last Jedi, so it seems most likely to be him. But it could also mean Rey, if Luke pops it for any reason, since she’s exhibited power over the force. Or it could refer to more than one Jedi, i.e. Luke and Rey, because the plural of Jedi is also Jedi. Fun with linguistics!

Where It Begins

Disney

Unlike any other Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi will pick up just where the previous film ended. An official production announcement video for the film showed new director Rian Johnson (who has sci-fi form with Looper) taking Mark Hamill (Luke) and Rey (Daisy Ridley) through a scene on Luke’s lonely little island. Johnson confirmed in an interview at the 2016 Star Wars Celebration that the film begins here.

Luke Skywalker

Disney

After teasing his appearance for the entirety of The Force Awakens, then giving us a single shot of him before the credits rolled, The Last Jedi will supply a whole lot more Luke Skywalker. In what way exactly we don’t know, but Johnson told USA Today that the core question of the film is, “What’s going on with Luke Skywalker?”

Rey

Disney

Adding credence to the idea that “The Last Jedi” refers to more than one, Episode VIII will see Rey deep in Jedi training with Luke. Johnson has said, “the second film is where we start zooming in on the characters and getting to the heart of them, challenging them, and pushing them deeper”. He said that family will be key to Rey’s character. Is Luke her father? We shall see (maybe).

General Leia Organa

Disney

It’s known that Carrie Fisher completed her filming for The Last Jedi before her death in late 2016. Whether it was a large role, or a small appearance as in The Force Awakens, we don’t know, but Fisher will appear in the film as intended. Luscasfilm has promised it has no plans to recreate Fisher digitally, as it did with that somewhat creepy Peter Cushing in Rogue One.

Poe Dameron and Finn

Disney

The characters played by Oscar Isaac and John Boyega won’t be forgotten. Johnson told USA Today, “I wanted to know more about each of them, and that doesn’t just mean information or backstory. Figure out what’s the most difficult thing each of them could be challenged with now — let’s throw that at them and dig into what really makes them tick by seeing how they handle that.”

The Newbies

Producer Kathleen Kennedy has said that there are only “a handful” of major new roles. We don’t know what most of those are, but Benicio Del Toro indiscreetly mentioned that he’s playing a villain. Rumours are that he’s not a big snarling villain like Snoke, but a subtle betrayer, like Lando Calrissian in Empire Strikes Back. Laura Dern will also appear, reportedly as some sort of aristocrat, as will Kelly Marie Tran. Tran is playing a role significant enough that she was mentioned in the official press release, yet she is not famous enough to have her own Wikipedia page, which is very unfamous. Even most Big Brother contestants have one.

The Inspiration

Rian Johnson asked his creative crew to watch films including Twelve O’Clock High, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Gunga Din, Three Outlaw Samurai, Letter Never Sent and Sahara (not the Matthew McConaughey one) to prep for the film. A number of these films share a common theme of an individual or very small group fighting back against a much larger threat, so we might deduce that The Last Jedi will see Luke and Rey attempting to thwart the New Republic almost alone. If we were the sort of people who extrapolated wildly.